CBI takes over probe into Satyam case

The CBI on Wednesday took over probe into the Rs 7,800-crore Satyam fraud, which has rocked the country's corporate world, leading to the arrest of former chairman B Ramalingam Raju, MD B Rama Raju and ex-CFO Vadlamani Srinivas.
    
The Department of Personnel, under which the CBI functions, issued a notification on Wednesday morning to the agency asking it to probe the scam, which was being investigated by the CB-CID of the Andhra Pradesh Police, official sources said.
    
This comes after the Andhra Pradesh government issued a notification requesting the Centre for a probe by the premier investigation agency.
    
CBI sources said records and other material associated with the Satyam probe was being taken over by the agency and a case to this effect would be registered by the agency soon.
    
As the case is transferred to the CBI, the probe agency can now avail up to nine days of custody of Satyam founder B Ramalinga Raju, who has been interrogated only for five days ever since he was arrested on January 10.
    
On January 7, Raju confessed that he had cooked the company's account books and inflated profits over the past several years.
    
Following the confession to the fraud, the government superceded the board of the IT major and ordered an SFIO investigation into Satyam and its subsidiaries. More than 300 entities related to Satyam and the Raju family are also being probed by the SFIO team.